These FAQ’s are for authors looking to self-publish and considering using the services of Any Subject Books

Got questions about us self-publishing your book?

These FAQ’s relate to Any Subject Books’ capacity as a provider of self-publishing services to independent authors. If you’re looking for us to publish through us and would like information about the service we offer, please click on this FAQ’s – online book publishers link. Still stuck? Just use the Live Chat service on the right-hand side of any page to talk to a senior person at ASB or leave a message if we’re off-air and we’ll get straight back to you. That’s a promise!

We’re pleased that you’re interested in using our services. As authors ourselves, we fully understand how much effort you’ve put into your book and thus the importance of who to entrust its handling to.

In plain words, the difference between us and other self-publishing companies is simple:

Work is carried out by real and experienced people.

We care. Every book we handle is treated like it’s one of our own.

We’re authors ourselves – we understand

Let’s now look at who we are, what we do and what we won’t do. To help you find your way around this page, we’ll split it into 6 sections:

Who are we?

What can we do?

How do we treat our customers

How does it work in terms of the money?

Legal stuff

Anything else

For ease of working, these FAQ’s are ‘general’ in nature. You’ll find specifics on the appropriate service page thus the ‘editing’ page explains exactly what’s covered by our editing services. You’ll also find a specific ‘no quibble guarantee’ attached to each service page. If anything’s still unclear, please DO ask!

Who are we?

You’ll find this answered in much more detail on the About Us page but, in a nutshell, we are a team of authors who’ve amalgamated our talents and experience along with the contacts we’ve built up. Disillusioned with the many scammy automated services which plague the self-publishing business plus the ‘do-it-on-the-cheap’ people who operate on a ‘one size fits all’ basis, we got together and set up Any Subject Books. That’s the difference between us and others – we give the personal touch.

What can we do?

What services do we offer?

You’ll find more information about each of our services on the appropriate page below or please see an overview on our book publisher company page.

How do we treat our customers?

Communications

Don’t you just hate it when all you’ve got is a contact form that no-one replies to? Well, you won’t find that here. If you fill in our form, it will, repeat, WILL be answered. You’ll also find a toll-free US phone number you can ring to speak to us on. That all said, why not click on the Live Chat service? It’s much more immediate and there’s a link on the right-hand side of every page.

By arrangement, we can also converse on Skype.

Please never guess an answer – just ask us and we’ll give you an honest reply.

Making sure you’re happy

Our policy is to endeavour to get things right first time – that way everyone’s pleased and we process jobs in the most efficient manner. This is why we’ll want to be absolutely certain about your requirements before we start and why our order forms are not organised around getting customers to part with their money as quickly as possible – we’re after the essential information that we need in order to do the job properly.

Happy customers mean:

Repeat business (much better than us having to waste money on advertising)

Good reviews

Personal recommendations

More efficient working for us

We can be rightfully proud of what we’ve done (important in our office)

Lower blood pressure all round

There doesn’t seem to be any argument in favour of doing a shoddy job!

Trial pieces

Some services deliberately include a trial part in which we’ll do a small piece of the job just to make sure that we’re on the same wavelength. If so, we invoice you the rest and continue, if not (and we both agree that it’s not going to be possible), we’ll just refund you. You will be asked to sign a simple agreement saying that a condition of a full refund is that you will never make use of what we’ve sent you – that’s only fair.

Our no quibble guarantee

Essentially we just want to get it right, acquire a band of happy customers and watch our referrals skyrocket. We won’t do that by providing a lousy service or by ignoring the requests of our clients.

You’ll find a much more specific ‘No Quibble Guarantee’ included with each of the self-publishing services we off as we think it’s a more effective way of promising how we’ll behave than by hundreds of vague words of intent here. Don’t forget, if you’re still unclear just ask us!

How does it work in terms of money?

Payment terms

We ask that all services are paid for with order although you’ll find some where it’s best for all if we just take a part payment and then see how we get on. We’ll then either ask for full payment or refund you what you’ve paid depending upon how it’s proving to work out.

Refunds of overpayments

In some cases we have to estimate the final account (ghostwriting is an obvious example). In such situations, we’ll estimate the final word count once we’re clear about where we’re going and bill you accordingly. It’s quite likely that this will result in a slight overpayment. This money is yours and will be refunded to you very shortly (usually 2 to 3 working days maximum) after you’ve made the final approval (see below).

Approval of work

This is a key part in the processing of any job. When we’ve finished (in our opinion) a project, we’ll send it back to you with a watermark. It’s an unfortunate fact of life that we have to put such marks on work to prevent unscrupulous people from taking our work, saying, “Actually I don’t like it – I want a full refund” and then (once we’ve refunded them) promptly using what we sent. As soon as you’ve given your approval, we’ll send you an unmarked version.

Payment terms

Strictly pro-forma (in advance) and via Paypal. You don’t need an account with them and you can choose to pay in any currency. Your credit card details are never given to us at any time. We will never ask you to pay us direct – it will always be via our Paypal account.

Legal stuff

What won’t we publish

Like most publishers, we won’t touch anything which contains content of a nature likely to incense hatred, encourage crime or which might be deemed pornographic (as opposed to erotic which is perfectly OK). It comes back to our old mantra – if in doubt, just ask!

Storage of files

We would normally store your files in case you accidentally delete them however your work is your work and, if you say “Delete them from your files”, that’s what we’ll do. If you do that, it’s forever. Full-stop.

Anything else

We try hard to get things right first time – a policy which means that we need to know exactly where we’re going before we start work. As a result, you’ll find our booking forms a bit more detailed than those of many other companies. We’re sorry about the time this takes but it does mean that we’re properly prepared – something which will ultimately save you time, too. Don’t forget – please – if you’re stuck, not sure, confused, baffled, bemused or bewildered … JUST ASK!!!!